Arsenal Set to Sign Konsa

23:59The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub followed by ice cold Pepsi. Add a couple of friends and now that's next level. Suddenly the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing, and the food tastes better. because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today. Now for some bonus content. Here we are talking all things Real Madrid in our pre-show. Let's pivot and talk about the other side of Madrid in Real Madrid. This is what Jose Mourinho had to say about Barcelona signing Rodri ahead of them. He said, I spoke with him a couple of times.

24:39Rodri had doubts. He doubted. And I think what happened is that the doubts Rodri had gave me doubts. Real Madrid are so big that we can't have players who think twice. All right, Alex, what do you think Jose Mourinho is trying to say there? We know he knows his mind games, but is that really just how it went down? I mean, it fits him with some of the reporting that we've done in terms of the doubts. Certainly the feeling that the player had that Real Madrid weren't entirely convinced about him. and that goes back a long way. It felt like Mourinho took a long time to come round to the idea of potentially signing Rodri.

25:16They were convinced by what he did at the World Cup, but even then, I think on the players' side, there was feeling that, well, do they really want me right from the top? Does the coach want me? Does the dressing room want me as well? Mourinho, what he's trying to do there is say that those doubts came from Rodri's side, and then it was that Mourinho started to question, well, is this guy really committed to me? I think it's a legitimate question that Rodri had potentially the interest from Barcelona as well, and had the option of weighing up the two business clubs in Spain, the project of each, the coach, the playing style, his teammates, and then took a decision.

25:46It's the first time, of course, we've heard from Mourinho, really, because he's been at the club working in pre-season pro for a month. He was presented this week, but behind closed doors, no press conference, no media present. And this interview that he gave late last night on Spanish TV, Classic Spain, it was broadcast from midnight, finished about 2 a.m. I have to stay up to watch it, talk about late night. But yeah, the first time I've really heard from Jose Mourinho. And that Rodri thing was one of the highlights, no question. Some sort of explanation for why he ended up at Barca rather than Real Madrid.

26:17Mita, that's just the normal time you have dinner in Spain. Luis, let me come to you on this one. So basically, Jose Mourinho is trying to say that Real Madrid weren't the ones or they're the ones that rejected Rodri in the end. He didn't reject them. Yeah, well, in the end, you have to send a message to the crowd as Mourinho was mentioning, Real Madrid is so big that the players should be ready to join Real Madrid for the first goal. I think it's the other way around. I think that Rodri has been always a player who has been praised by his style of play, but also as the man out of the field, a person that is really committed to the team, that doesn't like the shines, doesn't like the spotlight.

27:00His work ethic has been fantastic. and I think that he look at the two projects the project of Barcelona is already giving rewards by winning two La Liga trophies close to getting involved in the last stages of the Champions League and his opportunity of being in that kind of team and on the other side you've got Mourinho's team that is starting generating a new movement with new players but it's still fresh, it's still new and it's still kind of uncertain because we don't know what is going to happen this year with Real Madrid. So I think the idea of playing under Hansi Flay was quite appealing for Rodri because it's quite similar of what Pep Guardiola likes to play.

27:40Very energetic, very aggressive going forward with a lot of pressure on the ball and also being dominant with the ball. And I think it's a totally different style of what Mourinho is going to implement in Real Madrid. Right. Well, Jose Mourinho has also been speaking about another incident, specifically a very ugly incident that involved one of his players now in Vinny Jr. and one of his former players in Gianluca Prestiani. This is what he had to say for me. It's very simple. Vinny knows whose side I'm on. He can count on me on his side. At the time, Prestiani was on my team and I will always protect my players.

28:19That is non-negotiable. Alex, are you buying into what Jose Mourinho is saying is all good in the hood between him and Vinny Jr.? I mean it's an explanation of sorts isn't it I'm not sure it's a particularly convincing one it was certainly one of the big questions that we had about Jose Mourinho coming back to Real Madrid it's rather one of his key players there'd been this huge flashpoints last season in which you know a lot of people myself included felt like Mourinho's reaction in the aftermath of that game was was pretty outrageous we haven't yet heard from Vinicius in terms of how he how he feels about this I don't know if we will hear publicly about how he feels about this there hasn't been yet any reporting in terms of privately what he feels about it.

29:00I guess the only possible justification, whether you buy it or not, from Mourinho's side is the one that he's given, which is that as far as he sees it, he was kind of sticking up for his guy. Yeah, Prostiani, of course, was accused of racially abusing Vinny Jr. in that Champions League game against Benfica, Xhaka. And the thing is, I get what Jose Mourinho's saying. Once you're my player, I have your back. But what do you make of his explanation? Is it enough if you're Vinny Jr.? Because if you know your player is in the wrong, then surely you can't just have his back. I'm not sure that's enough.

29:29But it's as much as Jose Mourinho or anybody in that situation could offer. I'm with Alex. And I'll freely put myself in the shoes of Vinicius Jr. here. I'm not sure that Jose Mourinho, what he said, don't know what private conversations they have, is or may ever be able to appease or justify his reaction to Vinicius Jr. in that game or to Presiani's comments and everything that came after. But in terms of defending it, I'm not sure that anybody could do a better job. That being said, we are asking Jose Mourinho in this instance to defend the indefensible. I think was always going to be a failing effort.

30:15This at least kind of, as I say, I think puts him in a better position because he could have added to it. I don't think the statement added to it in any way at all. All right, that's all she wrote, Shaq. That's a wrap for ESPN FC, but do not go anywhere because Extra Time is next.

30:44Welcome into Extra Time. Alexis Yunus here hanging out with Shaka Hissop and Don Hutchison. Look at him giving us a salute. Oh, Don. What a fancy man. What was that jacket? Yeah, let's talk about... We have to address that. We have to address that. We have to address that jacket. Because I thought it would be Luis Garcia's hat that stole the show from the picture we dug up. But that jacket, it was giving the aviator. And I kind of like it. But I think it was the hair that... No, it's part smoking jacket. It's part of his robe, part of his tuxedo. You've got to think, guys. You've got to think.

31:18That was after Locked Stop and Two Smokled Barrels. So that's probably me at about 25, 26. 25. So you didn't have taste at 25. Oh. Didn't develop his sense of taste. Well, that was the fashion shack. Well, that was the fashion shack. I mean, let's not look at a young shack. He's not with 25. Oh. You can see what he was wearing. No, let's not do that. We do have a couple of young shackers. No. No, don't. Let's not do that. Do you know what it is? I think all our young Shaka pictures are him in the old school goalkeeper's kit. And those go hard, man. Old school goalkeeper's kit, fire. I mean, one of the best looking guys in the world when I was a youngster at Liverpool was John Barnes.

31:58Yeah, fair. And if you've seen some of John Barnes' Versace jackets, like black and white diamonds and, you know, lightning bolts everywhere. Versace, black and white everywhere. Oh, I mean, at the time, it was fashionable, and Versace was, like, huge, but it was some look. Shaka, you know Jaw Bards very well. I do. I appreciate his fashion. I do not have a black and white light and bold jacket. Versace jacket. Do you have a Versace jacket? John could pull it. No, I know. But he could pull it off, though. Could he? But he could pull it off. Yeah. No. All right. We're going to have to dig up some of these old school pictures.

32:35We love it. All right, let's get into the first question. Now, it seems everybody's ready to give Arsenal the Premier League trophy, but weren't we all ready to give Liverpool the trophy this time last season? Absolutely correct. After all the business and the cash they splashed, but Don didn't work out too well for them. No, that is a fantastic point. I think everyone off the back when Liverpool won the title and they signed Isak and one or two others went, whoa, that's a statement signing. That's Liverpool going to win the league again. But I think Arsenal are just so strong because what Liverpool have got now is they've got top-class players, but they're a little bit flimsy.

33:13Where I look at Arsenal and I look at the men that they've got and I think Calafiore can play two or three positions. Jurien Timba, two or three positions. Saliba, Mosquera, Gabriel, Incapier. These guys can all play right across the back four. And then you go into midfield with Declan Rice and Odegaard, who was great in the game against Man City. And I thought he bossed the game. We watched the game Norway against England. I thought he was the best player on the pitch. And then Havertz is that nine. I think he'll get more game time than Victor Jochrez. I just see them being the most settled team in the Premier League by far.

33:48With all the other changes going on with managerial changes or teams that are in transition. Arsenal just looks solid. Well, remember in the show we were laughing at Don and Luis because they picked Florian Wirtz to be their player of the year this year. And I was wondering what they did to convince you, Shaka, because after what we saw from him this season, little did I know that last year you picked Beards to be your player of the year. I mean, I'm no better. I picked Mo Salah, but now I get it, Shaka. So you're just kind of hoping he comes good to validate your opinion. Listen, and again, I am basing my faith in Floyd Beards purely on what we saw of him at Leverkusen.

34:31Oh. Purely. He was outstanding. Not good at all last year. So we're just forgetting the last year, including the World Cup for Germany. Selective amnesia, Alexis. Oh, selective amnesia. I've got a lot of it. Got a lot. Because you sleep a lot, Shaq. Did you sleep through the last year? Did you sleep through the World Cup? I know you saw those Germany games, Shaq. What are we talking about? Just saying. Just saying. Germany were bad. Yeah. just with yeah germany let themselves everybody but if we speak as a collective shack all right next question shall we with arsenal having now acquired as riconza can you recall any other european club with as much depth as they possess at the moment don

35:20not in recent years not in recent years i mean you could go back a decade with barca and real Madrid, but not in recent years or Alex Ferguson, Man United, when he had four strikers. You know, yeah, I just look at them and I just think, who's going to score against them? And there was a point last season, I think for the first, what, two or three months when no one got a shot against Arsenal, never mind scored. So the only thing that might hamper them slightly is maybe a little fatigue off the back of the World Cup. It's the only thing because I just think they're so strong. Don, what about the rules changes?

36:00You went to a big meeting yesterday, didn't you? I did. I was in Olympia yesterday, which is the home of the Premier League. It's a brand new building. We went through all the office changes, this, that and the other. But Howard Webb was there. And he gave a very interesting talk about how VAR this season is going to be more relaxed. And he gave loads of examples that we saw last year. and it emphasised really Alexis and Xhaka when he was putting clips up and he was asking everyone that was in the room, so everyone that worked at the Premier League and then, you know, presenters and ex-footballers, journos, etc.

36:38And a lot of the decisions when he was replaying them said like show of hands for goal or show of hands for disallowed goal and the room literally was like 50-50 or 60-40. So it emphasised how hard a referee's job is But he did say the feedback he got from social media, from guys all around the world and their opinion on VAR, is it got involved too much last year. And he's going to try and relax it a lot more. Music carriers, Jack. Well, I see what that means in practice. I'm not sure exactly what it means. If you asked me what we needed from VAR, I would just say more consistency. Yep. You know, it's too often you've had interventions that don't feel warranted or it's managed differently in a different game.

37:30The consistency about it is what I think confuses people. Is that going to change how Mikel Arteta approaches games? Was that done? Shaq, he did say, well, he did sort of say, he said it's a little bit of a contradiction because even though they're going to try and relax getting involved, that's going to bring more scrutiny as if to say why didn't you get involved in that one or why didn't you get involved in this one so he said actually we can't actually win sometimes because if we don't get involved and we relax it people will go wow why didn't you check this why didn't you check that so I think the point that he was raising is I don't know if you guys agreed but I thought the referees in the World Cup were absolutely brilliant and I put my hand up for a question I said Howard I said my biggest bugbear in football at the minute watching Premier League football and I'll use an example as a fullback because it normally happens as a fullback.

38:20When a fullback's going towards his own goal and a right winger or left winger closes him down and the fullback just falls over, the referee goes, free kick. In the World Cup, they went, no, no free kick. I thought the referees were fantastic. And I raised that point to Howard Webb and he said, that's one of the things they're going to try and say to the referees, don't give any soft fouls, let the game flow. I'll take it. In theory, again, I want to see it in practice. In Arsenal games. Well, I'm not picking on Arsenal. I want to see it in practice. And to Dawn's point, I think I'm right in saying the first time video assistant referee was using a World Cup was 2018.

39:02And it was brilliant then. Somehow, eight years later, while we continue to praise the refereeing and the standards at World Cups, we're still trying to get it right. In league football, and I get it, there's far more games in the league over a far longer time, and so a lot more to kind of get through. But I've always felt that they've gotten it right at the Worldcats, but somehow the leagues are still kind of trying to figure this out, and rule changes and all sorts. I believe when I see it, that's all I've got. One was very, very interesting. Sorry, Alexis. One was very interesting. and he was trying to crack down on players feigning injury.

39:47So if an outfield player goes down and the physio comes on, that player's got to go off now for a minute instead of 30 seconds. The interesting one was when a goalkeeper goes down and he needs treatment, he then obviously can't go off. An outfield player's then got to go off in his place for a minute. That's an interesting one, that dynamic. Our Ale Moreno wouldn't stand a chance. No. Feigning injuries every second, he'd be up for the entire game. All right. Next question then, shall we? Are Spurs acting spursy in the transfer market, fighting relegation and then playing FIFA transfer in real life signing Tonali?

40:24Fernandes, do Marmouche and Savinho fit in the De Zerbi project? Don, you want to tackle this first? Good on them. Good on them. Good on De Zerbi, good on Tottenham for listening to a manager who's saying, I've got the power. I'll take you away from the bottom four. I'll get you back into European football. let's no longer be Spursy let's spend the cash and I think the job that he's done and the players that he brought in I think so far have been exceptional Jack? I agree I think it's needed from Spurs yeah listen despite what the table may have said last couple of seasons Spurs are a big football club and I think this has been needed for them and credit to Zerby but now of course that means expectations are very high for Spurs this season Well, I'm glad you say expectations are very high for Spurs this season because I want to know how high.

41:14Let's go to our next question that asks, any chance Tottenham will finish in the top three? Don, top three for Spurs? No chance. Not a chance. After everything we just said. No, but my ears did prick up in the show when Xhaka sort of teased us a little bit. But he didn't really go all in. He didn't go all in and tell us where Spurs were going to finish. I think he'll finish between 7th and 8th. That's because Xhaka's giving his full Premier League predictions on the show tomorrow. But Xhaka, give us a teaser. Spurs top three? No. No? Nope. No chance. Spurs will not be in my top three. Are you willing to put something on it?

41:57I... If Spurs finish top three, here's my promise. Say it to the camera. To Mike Rodriguez. guys. I will personally buy a Spurs shirt, put his slap on the back, whatever position they finish as your number, and wear it for a week straight. On the show? Yes. A week straight? A week straight. So we can schedule in for a week straight? You can schedule in for how many of our shows for however long you want. I am wearing it every single show for a week straight. Alright, well we have that recorded. Don, you heard that too, right? You're my fellow witness. Heard it. Heard it. Absolutely heard it. Shaq, what about United?

42:41What if United finish top three? If Manchester United finish top three... Here we go! Give it to me, Shaq. If Manchester United finish top three, I will walk into a store, buy a Manchester United shirt, put his lap on the back, whatever position they finish, 1, 2, or 3, and And I will wear it for a week's treat. We love United finish third. So by pure elimination, by pure elimination, it has to be, Shaq, according to your algorithms, Arsenal, City, Liverpool. In some sort of order. Tune in tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow. Daniel Hutchinson. To find out, but you heard it here. If United or Spurs finish in the top three at the end of the Premier League season, And Shaka will be donning, no pun intended, either of those shirts for a week each.

43:36I hope they finish second and third, if anything. And Shaka just has to wear the shirts back to back to back to back for two weeks. Beautiful. We love to see. There we go. I was not ready for the color, Shaka. It's true in colors. It goes. All right. Next question. Every single FC pundit has Chelsea finishing top four this season. You don't know Shaka's yet, though. Are they really that much better from last year's team that finished 10th? or is this a result of other teams getting worse? Don? A tiny little bit of both, but I think the signings have been good. I like Lacroix signing from Palace.

44:14And then, as I mentioned before, you think João Pedro, I think he's the one, if Barca had all the money in the world, I think he's the one that would fit a Barca shirt, but they haven't got that 100 plus million. So you think João Pedro, Karl Palmer will be better, Morgan Rodgers, fantastic signing, Estevão, the young Brazilian, Neto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandes. I mean, they've still got some team with no European football whatsoever. So one game a week, that's definitely going to help. That's the big thing that you guys keep saying. But yeah, absolutely. No European football plays into Chelsea's hands.

44:47I also think there's a Xavi Alonso effect coming in. Let's also remember that Chelsea were doing really well up until Christmas under Maresco. And then for some strange reason, in my opinion, if Chelsea don't finish top four, it is because the ownership group got involved again. I thought they were doing well under Maresca. Then the ownership group comes in, he's out the door, and then everything just kind of comes apart as it seems. Yeah, the players themselves even admitted that they were a bit surprised too and had no idea what was going on. So, big season ahead for Chelsea. We shall see. Next question.

45:23Don, which of these clubs has suffered a bigger loss with regards to the departure of their key players in this window? Manchester City with the loss of Stones, Bernardo and Rodri, Newcastle losing Gordon Tonali and Guimaraes, or Villa losing Rodgers, Tielemans and now Konza. Man City all day long. Oh, I thought you were going to say Newcastle. Man City all day long. No, well, listen, if you don't want to play for Newcastle, off you pop. Go on, move on. Oh, spicy. Newcastle have gone in a different direction. Listen, you can look at it two ways. We're Newcastle fans, I'm a Newcastle fan. I can get really down thinking, oh, we had Elliot Anderson, we had Bruno, we had Tonali, could have been the best midfield three.

46:05We had Isak and Anthony Gordon. We were so close to getting top two, top three. But those players have wanted to move on. If they don't want to play for Newcastle and they've got aspirations of going winning trophies in Champions League and Bruno's case, champion at Arsenal, then you have to say good luck to them. You're only in the game a short period of time and Bruno's close to 29. I don't blame him. Having said that, you get behind the young players at Newcastle, you wish them all the best. Jaeslau is a progressive manager, you work them hard. I like what he's been saying. But in terms of the question, you know, having no Pep, having no John Stones, having no Bernardo Silva and having no Rodri especially, I just can't see how City win the league.

46:45So to answer the question, I think it's Man City. Villa have been ripped apart as well, but I think it's City. Xhaka is Newcastle, isn't it? I think so. So, listen, to Don's point, and here's how I'm looking at this. Who's most affected? Who drops furthest down the table from what we show or maybe what we expect? Given Newcastle's, given those departures, I think Bruno Guimara is absolutely key to so much about Newcastle. And, of course, you lose your manager, and I wonder about how that's impacted. I will also say that I was very surprised to see Aston Villa in both Don's and Lewis's top six.

47:29Because of those departures that I mentioned there. So I think Newcastle are the greatest impacted, Villa second, and I think City third. Now, City have lost some good players, but they still have a hell of a team that they can put out on a Saturday, if everybody's fit. Maresca also knows the league. We know Unai Emery and how good he is. This cast has an unproven quantity in that regard. This mic keeps falling off. Xhaka's mic keeps falling, but this time the battery didn't fall off, so that's good. It's Pep. All right, final question now. Losing Pep in it. There was much less grappling on corners and set pieces at the World Cup.

48:13Will that happen in the Premier League or will it be just like last season? I know somebody who went to this meeting in Olympia. I know. To the new Premier League buildings. Got shown around all the offices and everything. Was able to put up his hand and ask questions to the Howard Webb. Yes. Done. Hello, Howard. Hello, Howard. What do you think? The floor is yours. Hello, Mr. Webb. Hello, Mr. Webb. I've got a question for you. What are you going to do about all the grappling and fighting the corners like we saw last year? And he said it's very, very hard to police because all footballers are always looking for an edge.

48:52We are always trying to bend the rules. We're always trying to look for something. But it works out the World Cup, Don. And he said if no fouls are... Well, they've never done it. We didn't really see it. Someone actually did ask him that question. Someone actually asked him, why didn't we see it at the World Cup? And he actually said, I don't know. He said, the only thing I can think of is when you're with your club, you can work on your set plays from a Monday to Friday. When you're away at a World Cup, maybe there's less time to sort of work on all the set plays, wide free kicks, corners, for and against, et cetera.

49:20I just don't think teams in the World Cup are that interested in doing it. I think last year in the Premier League, we don't really see Barca do it. We don't see Real Madrid do it. I think it was a Premier League thing last year where everyone just got massively hooked on thinking, right, it's set plays, it's fine margins. Hopefully, we don't see it this year, or hopefully we see a little bit less of it, but still, it doesn't matter what it is, Alexis. If I'm playing in a game, and a ball goes out for a throw-in, and I know it's not my throw, we all shout, our ball ref! And we all try to bend the rules in our favour slightly.

49:55It's just human nature. Jack, are you buying that? Let me ask a question. Putting your hand up. Mr. Donaldson? Don, Mr. Hodgson? Mr. Webb via Mr. Donaldson. Why is it so hard to police? That's why VR is there. Why is it hard to police? Well, no, no, no, no. Well, where it's difficult to police, Shaq, I mean, he did put a clip up yesterday, and I cannot remember the goalkeeper. It was Anthony Gordon. Bruno Gimeraj scored from a corner direct, and Anthony Gordon, and I'll say this loosely, bumped the goalkeeper. There was no push. It was just a tiny little hip, and he asked the room, he went foul or no foul, and there's a 60-40 split in the room of no foul and the goal stood where he was sort of alluding to there's no foul you imagine a scenario right where let's just say Arsenal put a corner in you can imagine close your eyes Declan Rice puts a corner in and there's about 15 players in the six yard box but no fouls are being committed but everyone's sort of touched tight that's very difficult to try and police if there's no fouls going on there's always going to be grappling and there's always going to be contact.

51:00So where do you sort of, where do you look first? Where do you draw the line? Who are you looking at? He said it's hard. There's a couple of things about this, right? I get it. You ask a room for their opinion and it's split. I've seen that happen many times. I've been in some of those rooms. That's why you have referees. And that's why referees train. And that's why referees do refereeing courses. What you want is not a split in a room of the general public. What you want is greater consistency in a room full of referees. Yeah. So, you know, I understand what Don is saying, but Howard Webb in a room of people, even ex-footballers, not referees, you're always going to have this kind of discrepancy and is not a justification one way or the other.

51:52Now, you have a room of lay people. As long as those referees make those calls, the bump or whatever it may be, consistently, nobody argues. If you make that call 99 % of the time, nobody argues. That's all people want. The problem with that, Shaq, it doesn't matter if you're an ex-pro presenter or a referee. Everything's subjective. So you and Alexis could be in a room, in a VAR room, and Xhaka, you say that's a foul on the goalkeeper, and Alexis goes... Me and Alexis are not going to be in a VAR room. That's my point. You have... I'm just saying because you're sat in front of me. Yeah, no. My point is you have referees in the VAR room.

52:38People who are trained to see those things and understand what they're seeing. Not ex-players. Ex-players are as inconsistent. everybody else what you want is referees who train for hours to do this that that's that's my point here Don I hear you I do I do hear you but it's very subjective because every referee is different with every single call and I got that I get your point I know I know exactly what you're saying I know exactly what you say but because we're human decisions are subjective I get that too but it just can't be as inconsistent as we've seen. I get that. You know, as players, we used to say, oh, we've got Mr.

53:24Green today. Be careful. Yeah. You know, whatever it may be. You know, as referees, you know how to play the game according to the referee at times. Oh. Well, no, you know. You know who's card happy and who allows the game to play and who you can talk to in certain ways and who you can't say a thing. You know. So, you know, you manage accordingly. You deal with that. And similarly, in today's game, yes, there is that inconsistency. There is that subjectivity. But still, the inconsistency, I think, is what, the level of it is what upsets people. Well, I can't wait for this new Premier League season.

53:58We will see if everything John told us about this weekend. I will not be wearing a split shirt or a United shirt. Just be ready. ESPN FC will be back again tomorrow. Craig Burley is back with Kay Murray. And our Shaka Hissop will be giving his Premier League predictions. Apparently he has Manchester United in his top three. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

54:432020 means true murder mystery. Shocking. If you follow true crime in 2020, then you've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus. Add free exclusive true crime content. Search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts and start your free trial. Terms apply.